Wildflower embroidered fabric heart - Hapa Zome DIY

 

Hello sweet friends,

Did I ever make a blog post about this embroidered heart I made years ago? I know I shared a glimpse once with a note telling you to go find the how-to-Hapa-Zome DIY on another blog of mine. But that blog is inactive, the link is no longer working. Time to share the Hapa Zome DIY and the heart itself here.

In my explorations in textile art I came across natural dyeing. One of the easiest ways to dye your fabrics in a natural way is to hammer the colours in the cloth. Literally.

Cozy analog time crafting and painting

 

Hello lovelies,

Hope this June finds you well. It's been almost exactly a year since I last posted here. I'm not very active online. The analog life I find soothing and enjoyable. Not to say I don't enjoy the online life. There are many beautiful and interesting things to be found. Lots of inspiration for the creative soul.

I've been busy with my third picturebook as an illustrator, which will be published in a couple of days. So exciting! And I've done a lot of working on my craft as a children's book illustrator.

But now I long again for creating things which are not related to kidsbooks. So I started working in my sketchbooks more often. Like the flowers below.

And I've been going back to working in my old mixed media and junk journals. Which I loved! Just adding bits and pieces here and there, changing things, having a relaxed and cozy time.

There are many things I want to explore, learn, and develop.

Hope to see you again soon!

x Wen

Reflecting

 

Hello everyone,

Or should I say: anyone? Is anyone still interested in the good old crafty arty blogposts? I have to admit, I don't visit them anymore. Then why would you write a blogpost yourself, you could ask. I don't know, I just felt like reflecting on the years I spent here and the art journey I went on because of starting this blog.

It was 2012.

I stumbled upon a book called The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt.

Updates and hellos

Hello my dear blog friends,

It's been a while since I last wrote you. And I'm missing you and our Simply Neutrals gatherings! And my stash of yummy fabrics and laces, the needles and threads, the papers and glues, making mixed media books... But alas, no time at the moment... Alsn alas no time yet to have another Simply Neutrals party, I'm really sorry.

At the moment I'm over my head in illustration work (as in work I do for study purposes, not for paid jobs yet unfortunately). I hardly have time or energy left to be social besides family time and the social media side of following an intensive year long online study and trying to set up my illustration business.

 

Here is one of the illustrations I made for a children's book class.

And here is something I did for an editorial assignment.

It was the first time I was really experimenting with a more neutral palette and with drawing techniques. 

I hope all is well with you! I'm really sorry I've been so MIA on your blogs. And that I'm not able to do Simply Neutral parties again. I really loved our cozy gatherings and seeing your gorgeous entries come in.

 

But I want this illustration thing to work and need to hyper focus on that right now.

 

For now, wishing you a happy day and sending you big hugs!

xx Wen

Gorgeous collage received by Jesse of Lace Age Girl

Hello dear friends,

Today I'd like to share with you a gorgeous gift I received, which I mentioned earlier in the last Simply Neutrals post (which you can find HERE, it's still open for new entries). This gorgeous collage is created by dear Jesse of Lace Age Girl. Jesse was so sweet to also send me a beautiful rose patterned piece of fabric, gorgeous lace, sheer fabric, and strips of vintage sewing measurement tape. Dearest Jesse, thank you so much, you're a sweetheart!

You can find Jesse on her beautiful blog Lace Age Girl.

Wishing you a beautiful day!

Big hugs xx

Wen

Happy New Year

Happy New Year dear friends!!!

May 2019 be a blessed year for you. A year full of love and joy and interesting adventures. Do you have plans for the coming year? Or wishes or dreams or goals?

One of the things I want to learn is how to quilt. Do you have tips and tricks to share with me? And where do I start??? I know how to embroider, but my sewing has never been very neatly done. I'm a bit of a messy stitcher. As you can also see with my project for today. I call this my crazy collaged little quilt thingie.

The fabric journal is one that I had started a looooong time ago, but never came to work in it.

You can find the beginnings of it HERE.

I gathered some scraps of fabric. Some come from old blouses, some from an old pillow case, and some is new (or was new I should say, it's been around here for a while already). I collaged these scraps on a piece of white muslin, keeping the raw edges visible. And then I started to embroider and add some embellishments. I let my intuition guide me. The embroidery stitches I used are daisy stitches, French knots, (double) feather stitches, satin stitches, bullion knots, whipped backstitches, ... I think that's it, but I have the feeling that I'm forgetting one or two stitches...

Happy stitching, crafting, painting!

 

xx 

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends,

I wish you a

merry Christmas!

May your home be filled with joy, peace, and love.

And if you're in distress because of illness, sadness, or something else, may your pain be softened and your heart filled with peace. I'm sending you my warmest love and best wishes.

Big hugs,

xx Wen

(PS: this is a page from a fabric book, one of my w.i.p.'s that I never came to finishing and I doubt I ever will, but hey, who knows?)

Simply Neutrals 49 - bird illustrations and mixed media journal

Hello dear friends, a very warm welcome to Simply Neutrals for October 2018!

Thank you so much for your beautiful and heart warming link ups last month, I really feel this is a beautiful group of kind souls, encouraging each other and sharing our stories. Although I'm very busy with my illustration journey, I would not want to miss you sweeties! So I'm dedicated to keep this Simply Neutrals going for as long as possible.

The monthly Simply Neutrals gathering is a good motivator for me to keep on working on my Forest mixed media journal, which is mostly neutrals with green here and there.

For one of the projects for the illustration year course that I'm doing (and I will probably do another year in 2019!) I had to draw birds. If you know me, you know that I LOVE birds! So I don't mind drawing them, at all.

And one of them ended up in my mixed media journal :)

Above you see my journal surrounded by some of the other birds I drew.

In the (near) future I'd also love to embroider birds (and more flowers) in my journals, because besides drawing and painting and photography, embroidery is one of the things I'm passionate about. And besides illustration projects I'd love to go on with my exploring journey in textile and mixed media arts.

***

FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

Last month we welcomed Alison of alisonbomber.blogspot.com to our gathering. A very warm welcome to you, Alison! I was enchanted by the gorgeous nature themed tags she created. There is so much texture and layering going on on these small canvases. I love that she added dried flowers too.

Simply Neutrals 48 - working in my mixed media journal

Hello sweet friends!

Summer holidays are over, the kids are back to school, so I am back in Blogland! I hope you don't mind that I kept quiet during the summer holidays?

At the moment I'm really busy with an illustration/art course by the wonderful art agent Lilla Rogers, called Make Art That Sells. And besides the course my main focus at the moment is drawing a whole lot of all kinds of objects and living creatures, including human beings :) To practice practice practice.

I hadn't been working in the little mixed media books that I created (and which you can see some of HERE, HERE and HERE) and thought it was about time and wanted to draw a little tree in my forest book. I also added some lace that was gifted to me by SuziQ and Odetta, and a a clover four that I found and pressed. Not sure if these pages are finished yet. The whole book is a work in progress to which I keep adding bits and pieces here and there.

I'm wondering about the health of our trees lately, because we had such a dry summer here. It's been said that some of the trees really suffer and most likely some will not make it through autumn and winter...

***

FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

Thank you for joining in the fun again last month!

For the feature I chose this month a most gorgeous card created by dear Karen of Roosterhead Designs.

I chose this gorgeous work by Karen because I so much loved the romantic beauty of it - the layering, the aging, the textures, the beautiful image.

As you can see in the work of both Karen and me, I really don't mind some hints of colour here and there in the work you share with Simply Neutrals. As long as the overall feel of it is in neutral tones. If you know what I mean :)

Simply Neutrals #47

Hello dear friends, welcome to Simply Neutrals #47!

We just came back from the Austrian mountains, where we stayed for a couple of weeks. And today I just had to share with you one of the amazing glaciers we visited.